Revved Up Hearts (32 page)

He could only return her hug with one arm. “Sore. Those therapists are mean. They try to kill me,” he
joked.

“I know it hurts, but it has to. If you let those muscles go too long without exercise, you could lose
them.”

“I know. That’s what I keep telling myself to get through those
sessions.”

Dawn helped her father into his recliner. “Sit here, Daddy. There is someone I want you to meet.” She walked to the door of the playroom and motioned for Jeremiah to come into the living room. Freddy saw the younger man enter and tried to get up to stand and greet him. “Don’t get up, sir. I’ll come to you,” Jeremiah said as he crossed the room. “Pleasure to meet you.” He shook the man’s good
hand.

“Pleasure to meet you too.” Freddy’s eyes filled with tears. “And thank you for taking care of my little girl when
Kevin—”

“Now, Freddy,” Donna interrupted, “we agreed that we wouldn’t talk about that.” The three little girls came into the room to see what is going
on.

“No, you told me that you didn’t want to talk about it, but I need to say this one thing.” He turned his attention back to Jeremiah. “Thank you for taking care of my little girl when Kevin came to North Carolina. If I ever get my hands on that creep, he won’t walk away from the
encounter.”

“Freddy!” Donna
exclaimed.

“Dad! Don’t get your blood pressure up!” Dawn said at the same
time.

“You’re welcome, sir,” Jeremiah said, ignoring the exclamations of the two women. “Trust me. If I had been there when it happened, they would’ve carried him out on a stretcher. I’m still hoping for my turn at the
guy.”

“Enough, you two,” Dawn said. “It’s over. Let’s not talk about it
anymore.”

Dawn was right about one thing, Jeremiah told her later. It got really crazy at the Montgomery house around 3:30 p.m. when the bigger kids got home from school. The noise level intensified to twelve as seven more kids came in. “This is insane,” Jeremiah said. “How does your mom stand this?” he asked as five kids ran past him in what appeared to be a game of
tag.

“She has a heart of gold and the patience of a saint, to begin with,” Dawn told him. “And I think she can ignore the noise most of the time.” Dawn started to say something else but stopped because she had to make Carly give back the toy that she had just taken away from Joy. Of course, that made Carly cry because it was her toy. She ran to tell Donna. “Do you see why I moved to North Carolina?” Dawn remarked, making Jeremiah
laugh.

It was a nice spring afternoon so they carried the afternoon snack outside to the picnic table. When that was done, Dawn cleaned up the mess while Donna watched the kids in the backyard. Then the two women traded places so that Donna could start cooking supper. From her spot at the picnic table, Dawn could watch the kids, but she could step inside for a moment if her mom needed help. Jeremiah was playing basketball with the kids. Actually, it was more like he was picking them up and letting them slam dunk the ball. He saw her sitting alone, and he told the kids that he needed a break. He went to sit beside her. “You look like you were having fun,” she told
him.

“I am,” he said when he finished a drink of the ice water he had left on the table. “Ethan told me that his daddy watches NASCAR every week but that they like Junior better,” he told her with a
grin.

“What did you say to
that?”

“I told him that everybody is entitled to their favorite driver. He didn’t believe me when I told him that James Jr. is a good friend. I tried to explain to him that most of us are friends off the track. We just have to compete against each other to win. I don’t think he believed
me.”

Later, after all the kids were gone and Dawn’s brothers were home from work, the six of them sat down to a huge home-cooked supper of ham steak, fried potatoes, green beans, corn, and homemade biscuits. “That was delicious,” Jeremiah told Donna as he pushed away from the table. “I haven’t eaten like that since the last time I went home to see my
mama.”

“Do you have room for dessert? I’ve got chocolate cake with chocolate
icing.”

“Goodness no,” Jeremiah said, holding his belly. “I couldn’t eat another bite. How in the world did you cook all this while babysitting
kids?”

“I did as much as I could last night. That and years of practice,” Donna answered obviously enjoying the compliment. “Cooking is one of my most favorite things to
do.”

Later that evening, after the leftovers had been put away and the kitchen cleaned up, Dawn and Jeremiah went for a walk around the neighborhood. Again, she pointed out things that she thought he might find interesting. They stopped to talk to neighbors as they strolled. They went to Dawn’s old high school where she showed him the concrete plague with her name, and her classmates, that was set into part of the sidewalk. Hers was one of the many that made up the path between the various buildings. Then they walked down the hill to the city park. Dawn showed Jeremiah the spot where she had been playing short-stop when a ground ball took a funny hop and broke her nose. Then they walked down to the river. Dawn told him that this was where she had been baptized. They walked back to her house hand in hand, just enjoying the cool spring evening and each
other.

When they got back to the house, Dawn drove Jeremiah to the bed and breakfast where he would be staying. They sat on the porch swing out front watching cars and people. Dawn was so tired, but she didn’t want to leave Jeremiah just yet. He caught her trying to hide a yawn. “You must be beat. It’s been a long
day.”

“I am tired,” she said. She yawned again, but this time she didn’t try to hide it. “I’ll go home in a little while, but right now, I’m enjoying your company too
much.”

“You could stay,” Jeremiah said, pulling her closer, “and enjoy my company all night.” It was the first time he had said something like that to her in a long time. Part of her was disappointed because she thought they were past this, but part of her was excited that Jeremiah still wanted her. She had to admit that part of her wanted that too. He could tell she was thinking about it. “Well?” he asked, leaning in so close that their noses
touched.

“I can’t,” Dawn finally said with a sigh. “I want to, but I can’t.”

“I know,” he told her, kissing her forehead before leaning back. “But it helps to know that you at least gave it some
thought.”

Time to change the subject
, Dawn thought. “Anyway, I was thinking that I’d pick you up tomorrow around 10:00 a.m., grab a late breakfast, and then I’d show you around some
more.”

“Sounds great,” he
said.

“Great. I’d better go
now.”

The look in his eyes told her that he didn’t want her to go, but he didn’t say it. “Do you really think you should be by yourself? What if Kevin sees
you?”

“That’s why I drove Shane’s truck,” Dawn told him. “Kevin will not bother Shane. Shane, like Dad, has promised to hurt Kevin. Shane even went to Kevin’s house to deliver that message. No. Kevin will definitely not bother
Shane.”

“Okay. If you’re sure you’ll be all right. But call me when you get home anyway,” he said, pulling her in for a good-night
kiss.

“Okay. I will,” she said. Then she got into her brother’s truck and
left.

Dawn had every intention of getting up at 8:00 a.m. the next morning, but she must not have set her alarm. Either that or her old bed was just too comfortable. When she woke up and the clock said it was 9:30 a.m., she jumped out of bed. She had overslept and was running late. She hated doing that. Now she would never be able to pick Jeremiah up at 10:00 a.m. It was 10:30 a.m. when Dawn walked into the lobby of the bed and breakfast. Jeremiah was nowhere in sight. The owner, Jackie, was there cleaning up after breakfast. She told Dawn that she hadn’t seen Jeremiah all morning. Dawn went upstairs and knocked on the door to Jeremiah’s room. He didn’t answer after several seconds, so she knocked again. She waited about a minute and still nothing. She had raised her hand to knock again when the door swung open. It was obvious that she had woken him up. His hair was tousled, and he was wiping sleep from his eyes. He had a day’s growth of beard. She realized that she had never seen him unshaven. He was very cute like
this.